Pumpkin soup served in a pumpkin shell

This evening Melissa and Andy came over for supper. On the menu were:

Rye bread hors d'oeuvres: guacamole; Hebridean blue cheese; baby tomato and cucumber
First course: pumpkin soup served in a pumpkin shell (which took much longer to carve out that I anticipated)
Main course: Allerwash courgette lasagne, bresaola, and bean salad
Pudding: lemon meringue pie (by Mr hazelh)

I spent most of the afternoon (about four and a half hours) cooking this feast. As I did so I listened to the last three episodes of the BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Elena Ferante's Neopolitan novels on the iPlayer (having just finished reading the final volume of the series this morning).

Earlier in the day Mr hazelh and I cycled out to South Queensferry and back. This is the longest trip that I have completed on my new bike so far. I wanted to test how long I can cycle without suffering from backache. It appears that the answer to this question is an hour and a half.

Exercise today: solo bike ride to South Queensferry.